A motor is implemented in a conventional disk drive to control and activate a gear set in order to draw an optical disk into or eject the same from a disk compartment. However, the motor cannot be activated in case the disk drive is out of order or when no electrical power is available, thereby preventing the normal ejection of the disk from the disk compartment. Under such a situation, the disk must be removed manually, such as using hands or tool. One will find that the disk is jammed within the disk compartment due to the torque generated by meshing of the gear set with respect to the motor. A special emergency release device is required in order to remove the disk manually from the disk compartment.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0223420 discloses a disk apparatus including an emergency release device for manually release the disk from the disk compartment. The preceding disk apparatus 1 (see FIG. 2 of the citation) includes a loading motor 21 connected operably to the emergency release device. The emergency release device is further coupled to the disk insert-and-eject device, wherein the insert-and-eject device includes an ejecting lever 17 and a guide lever 18. The emergency release device includes a loading gear unit G1 (see FIG. 4) and a rack gear unit G2 meshed with the loading gear unit G1. The rack gear unit G2 has one end connected to the insert-and-eject device such that activation of the loading motor 21 results in driving of the loading gear unit G1, which, in turn, moves the rack gear unit G2 within the disk compartment, thereby drawing in or ejecting the disk from the disk compartment.
In case the preceding disk drive is out of order or when no power source is available, the loading motor 21, the rack gear unit G2 and the loading gear unit G1 will be disposed at a dead-lock state due to meshing relationships among them. At this time, the user must insert the emergency pin P into a hole 3b formed through the bezel 3 since the hole 3b is aligned with the loading gear unit G1, thereby pushing the loading gear unit G1 away from the loading motor 21 to disengage the two. Afterwards, the emergency pin P is inserted into another hole 3c formed through the bezel 3 since the hole 3c is aligned with the rack gear unit G2, thereby pushing the rack gear unit G2 inward of the disk drive and away from the bezel 3 so as to eject the disk from the disk compartment.
Note that it requires two steps to remove the disk from the disk compartment. The procedure cannot be reversed or else the disk cannot be removed from the disk compartment.